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Wednesday, 17 July 2013

Butterfly S incoming, can HTC India price it decently?

The listing of HTC Butterfly S on the company’s India website earlier today has created a frenzy of reports around the tech media. Everyone is reporting that HTC Butterfly S is coming to India soon; well that is not something unexpected and given the original Butterfly launch in the country earlier this year, it was pretty much certain that we will see Butterfly S launch. But, the important question is whether HTC planning to price it decently or it is going to be an overpriced disaster too?

The original Butterfly, which was released back in January with a price-tag of INR 45,990, currently retails for around INR 39,000. If our calculation from the Indian import reports is correct, HTC has imported around 4,900 units of Butterfly since its launch and we are sure part of these units are still with retailers around the country.

So, as you can see, the company probably sold less than just 4,900 units of Butterfly in the last six months, which is really poor and Butterfly was not a bad phone. It was in-fact one of the best high-end smartphones when it was released. The only reason for the poor sales – pricing, which we think is going to haunt the upcoming Butterfly S as well.

Given the specifications of Butterfly S and the current availability of original Butterfly at INR 39,000 and HTC One at INR 41,500, it is very likely that HTC India is going to price Butterfly S around INR 43,000 or even more. We will now just have wait and see whether HTC India has got some sense from its Butterfly disaster or not.